Learn about Svea’s experience with the Queens Arts Fund

Are you a Queens community-based organization or artist collective organizing cultural programming in 2018?

The QAF Access Grant, funded by the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, and the Community Arts Grants, funded by the NY State Council on the Arts, are available to fund projects by organizations that offer distinct arts and cultural programming to the Queens community.

The two grants both range from $1,000 to $5,000 and aim to support community organizations that enhance the cultural vibrancy in Queens’ communities and neighborhoods, and make the arts accessible to all.

Funds support artists fees, marketing fees, administration fees, and supplies associated with producing a cultural project for the Queens public. Funding is provided for projects in the performing, literary, media, and visual arts, ranging from folk/traditional forms to contemporary and socially-engaged artistic practices.

2017 grantee Svea Schneider’s INSITU Site Specific Dance Festival perfectly exemplifies the kinds of community projects we look to support with the QAF. Over the course of two days, 25 different dance groups performed in outdoor spaces throughout Long Island City. If festival visitors chose to, they could have experienced 7 hours of uninterrupted dance in 4 different locations all along the Long Island City waterfront.

INSITU’s goal is to create community through the arts by activating public spaces through dance. The Festival strives to strengthen, bridge and celebrate the diverse communities living along the LIC waterfront by using dance as a tool for deeper community engagement. INSITU aspires to make dance accessible, connect with new audiences and raise awareness of the power of movement. INSITU creates a supportive platform for artists to develop new work and increases the visibility of the arts in Queens.

Watch the video interview above to learn about Svea’s experience with the QAF, and how it helped INSITU come to be.